A motor vehicle engine, and in particular a gasoline engine, includes numerous fluid circuits. These circuits include elements that need interconnecting in sealed manner. It is essential for said sealing to be ensured throughout the lifetime of the engine, even under severe conditions of use, given that any leakage from a fluid circuit of an internal combustion engine in a motor vehicle runs the risk of damaging to the engine that is in a manner difficult to repair.
Thus, for reasons of reliability, car manufacturers have adopted rapid connectors for modern engines that enable sealing to be guaranteed for the fluid circuits. In addition, it is easy for robots to connect rapid connectors together.
However, consumers look for vehicles having maximum passenger space for minimum vehicle size and manufacturers therefore attempt to reduce the amount of space that the engine occupies in a vehicle by making use of fluid circuits that are complex in shape, thereby enabling them to make the most of the space available.
As a result, coupling devices for tubular ducts, and in particular for water pipes in a cooling circuit, need to be adapted to a particular shape and location of an engine, thereby making it necessary for each vehicle, or at least for each engine to develop special tooling, and in particular a special mold for molding an insert of plastics material suitable for mounting on the end of a tubular duct that is typically made of elastomer.
Although French patent application FR 2 669 771 discloses a multi-duct coupling for securing ducts implementing pieces that are interconnected by a flexible support, such a coupling cannot achieve the accuracy required of a device whose configuration is exactly matched to the configuration of the engine. Furthermore, that document does not suggest the possibility of using endpieces that are angled and that have angle-members pointing in accurate directions depending on the desired configuration.